Genre Conventions

The genre of our film trailer is Horror and we will be following the normal conventions that you would expect to see in horror movies such as using females as the main victims in the trailer. This is because they appear to be more vulnerable and the audience sympathise them. We are going to stick with the common convention of having a male “killer” because this is also what you expect to see in movies. We have decided to stay with the typical horror conventions as they are what appeal to the horror fans.

The film will challenge the common representation of White protagonists and villains and will feature Asians instead. This is something we have decided to change to show that other people can also appear on these movies and so it is different to other horror movies.

As, this trailer is being targeted to a wide audience, it would be ideal to include some elements of a Hollywood trailer. This will be done because it will attract the audience more, however keeping elements from an art-house trailer is still essential.

The whole midnight and darkness atmosphere will be formed due to it is what makes the ‘horror’ genre and helps to make the movie seem more realistic and scary.

Nafisa .x.

Overview for our production -'Face of Fear'

We are creating a horror movie trailer, called 'Face of Fear'. Our trailer will include some of the classic horror film conventions, such as a female protaganist. The villian will be a male. We are doing this so that the victim's appear more vunerable and also the villian will appear more powerful. This is a stereotype, showing males more dominant that females, however we are sticking with this because this is what horror fans like to see so that they can sympathise for the hero.

Our production will begin with a group of six teenagers (3 boys & 3 girls) leaving their car to ask an old man for directions. The old man then persuades the group to stay the night in a cabin of his as he feels it is far to late for them to be traveling. the group eventually agree's and go to the cabin. They struggle to open the door, so they send one of the guys to ask the old man for assistance. On his way to the back to the old man, he is assaulted and murdered by a mysterious man. The man vanishes as the group finds their friends body in a puddle of his own blood. The rest of the trailer will show a number of diffrent shots from other scenes and music will replace speech.

Our setting for this production can be seen below.

Raj

Past Student Production Analysis

Media Language:

• The trailer is mainly set in a house, however some scenes are shot in the park. As she is in the park herself it represents loneliness, solitude and enigma. The setting has many tree's as it is a typical genre convention such as The Blair Witch Project.
• The lighting that is used is low key to create a sinister atmosphere and suspense. A black and white affect is used and connotes enigma.
• There is non-digetic sound which is used throughout the whole trailer, however there is some digetic sound towards the end of the trailer. The music that is used created tension and suspense as it parallel to the text.
• The typography that is used in the trailer is red which connotes danger and death, also the rugged affect suggests torture and pain.
• Cuts are used to create a fast pace trailer which creates suspense and shock, this editing tool is used to suture the audience.

Institution:

• The trailers distributor is Dark Castle Entertainment is a division of Silver Pictures, a production house affiliated with Warner Bros.
• Dark Castle Entertainment was formed in 1999 by Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis and Gilbert Adler.

Genre:

• The genre of the trailer is horror which is designed to frighten the audience. It is a typical horror trailer that displays supernatural events.
• Representation:
• The victims are represented typically as scared, and high angle shots represent vulnerability of the victims.
• The villain is represented as isolated.

Audience:

• The audience for the trailer is probably for both males and females but mainly males, at the age of 18 or above.
• The secondary audience for the trailer would be people that enjoy watching horror.

Simren..x

The Setting for 'Face of Fear'

This area will be used as the setting for the majority of our practical production. It is a very dull and messy area which fits with the horror genre conventions. The weather at this time of year is also good for us, as it tends to be quite dull and foggy. The sun also sets quite early so darkness will make it look alot more like a horror film trailer.

Raj

'See No Evil' Trailer

We have watched the See No Evil trailer a number of times because it relates to our practical production. This is due to the fact that we are also doing a horror film trailer. This trailer has been produced by ‘WWE Films’ and 'Lions Gate Films'.

In the trailer is a group of people within their late teens – early twenties. They are the victims in the movie of the main character which is a huge man named Jacob Goodnight. During the trailer, Jacob is shown as a dominant force on a path of destruction destroying everyone and everything he see’s. Jacob appears to be wearing a scruffy, ripped, grey t-shirt with black jeans. His facial expression is angry to make him look more intimidating. He is represented as a demented psychopath. The group of victims are all wearing casual clothes with common hairstyles (straight open long hair for females, short spiked hair for males). They are represented as vulnerable and helpless people.

The lighting in the trailer is low key. This is because the aim was to make the environment a dark and scary place. Many camera angles and shots were used during the trailer. The most commonly used was the low angle shot. This was used to make the villain Jacob, look powerful and unstoppable. Another common shot used was the high angle shot. This was used on the group of victims to make them look vulnerable. Close ups were also used to show the characters emotions, especially when victims were screaming in fear. An extreme close up was used to show Jacobs eyes. This was done to show that his two eyes were different. Long shots are used when Jacob is chasing his victims, and an over the shoulder shot is used when he has caught a victim and has pinned them against the wall. A special effect which I noticed is making the camera “negative”. This means making the characters look a lot frightening. This effect is used for only 1 second. Many shadows were produced due to the lighting in this trailer. This would add a more chilling experience to it. The sounds in this trailer begin with the sound of water coming out from a shower. This is because a female victim is having a shower; however the doors then creeks open due to the fact that Jacob enters the bathroom. Sounds which are made by characters are victims screaming and shouting. Jacob also makes noise by stomping a lot when running after victims. Not much music is played in this trailer until at the end, where an electric guitar and drum kit is played for about 10 seconds to create more tension in the chase scenes.

The target audience for this film is mostly males above the age of 18, however the secondary audience is females over the age of 18.

Raj